But She Didn't Kill Him
by Link and Luigi
Summary: Tenten confesses her love to Neji, but doesn't get quite the reaction she had expected.


And She Didn't Kill Him

Neji could have gone the rest of his life without dealing with what happened to him the day before.

There he was just minding his own business when Tenten suddenly popped up behind him and asked him to go to the crazy genin dance that is held every year. Neji naturally politely (or what HE thought was polite) declined, just as he had done the year before.

This didn't go over so well with Tenten.

She threw a temper tantrum and threatened his life. She said, and Neji will quote her on this, _"If you're not there at the genin dance and I have no one to dance with then I swear I will kill you!"_

In response, Neji raised an eyebrow. He also raised the very important issue that Tenten had apparently overlooked: How was she going to possibly kill him? She was years and years away from being able to even lay a finger on him during training so how she thought she was going to go about carrying through with her threat was beyond him.

So, of course, he took absolutely no heed to her demand… er, request.

The night passed and the morning came. Neji awoke like he did every other morning and brushed his hair like ever other morning and brushed his teeth like every other morning.

Then he went to training. This was after he went through all the OTHER waking up necessities because let's get serious here, Neji's not just going to wake up, brush his hair, brush his teeth and then go to training. That's just NUTS.

He got there and everyone else was already waiting. Tenten looked crabby, but Neji was far from caring.

"Neji!" said Lee. "You missed the best dance ever!"

"Oh, did I?" said Neji. "How unfortunate."

"Yes…I must admit, it was quite the wonderful display of youth, if I do say so myself." Said Gai as if he was a genin and he was the one displaying the youth.

Then they all looked at Tenten who had her arms crossed and a rain cloud above her head.

"What?" said Tenten in an irritated tone.

They all shrugged and averted eye contact.

Training went about as normal.

Tenten didn't kill Neji.

It's not like she COULD have, though.

So anyway, when training came to a close, it was time to go home. Neji couldn't help but notice the fact that Lee was following him, so he stopped and allowed his loud and quite obnoxious teammate to catch up with him so he could make his request known.

"Well," Lee began. "You wouldn't know this because you weren't there… but Tenten was waiting for you to show up at the dance!"

"I know." Said Neji. "She asked me to go with her."

"And you said no?" said Lee.

"Obviously." Neji said. "Do you even have to ask that question?"

"She was quite upset about it." Lee said.

"So?" said Neji. "I don't care."

"Oh." Said Lee. "Okay! Bye!"

Then Lee frolicked off. Neji didn't give it a second thought.

He went home and went to bed.

Then he woke up and got ready.

And went to training.

Everyone was already there when he arrived.

"Good morning, students of mine!" Gai greeted them. "I hope you all had a good night and rested easy because we're working extra hard today!"

Neji looked at Tenten who was glaring at him.

"We'll start with five laps around the village!" said Gai. "And make it fast because I'm timing you!"

With that, the three students were off. It didn't take long until Lee was far out in front of Neji and Tenten, and it didn't take much longer than that for Neji to be far out in front of Tenten.

He lapped her.

And when he was approaching her, he on is fourth lap and she on her third, he noticed her tumble to the ground and fall on her face. Neji frowned. That was SO staged.

He ran by her as she caressed her ankle, pretending to be injured.

"You fell down." He said, not even looking at her.

"Neji!" she yelled after him. He couldn't help but feel satisfied with himself as he caught sight of her stand up and thrash around angrily.

When they finished with laps and waited for Tenten to finish, training went about as normal.

Tenten didn't kill Neji.

"Neji, wait!" Tenten called as Neji walked away from training, on his way home to rest up for the next day.

"What is it?" Neji said.

"You want to get something to eat?" she asked.

"No." Neji answered.

Tenten stared at him.

"Are we done?" Neji said.

"Um…"

Neji decided that they were done and left their conversation at that.

He went home and went to bed.

Then he woke up and got ready.

And went to training.

Everyone was already there when he arrived.

"What training exercise do you have planned for us today?" Lee asked Gai enthusiastically.

"Sparring!" said Gai JUST as enthusiastically.

Neji sighed. He knew that this meant that Gai and Lee would be sparring, leaving him stuck with Tenten.

"Neji, you better be careful because I'm going to go all out today!" Tenten threatened.

"Good." Said Neji. "I was waiting for you to get serious."

They trained. Tenten threw shuriken at Neji senselessly and Neji tried not to look TOO bored.

"Fine, let's do some hand-to-hand combat!" said Tenten.

"Fine." Neji said.

The two of them got closer and started fighting. Neji easily stepped to the side of one of Tenten's attacks and tapped her on the back. This caused her to lose her balance and fall flat on her face.

"Hey!" said Tenten.

"What?" said Neji. "You said you wanted to do hand-to-hand combat."

"Right!" said Tenten, standing back up and brushing herself off. "You attack first this time!"

"Very well." Said Neji as he hit Tenten four times and then kicked her against a tree.

"Stop that!" Tenten yelled.

"Stop what?" Neji said.

"You're fighting dirty!" Tenten argued, standing up.

"Am I?" Neji said, looking around for someone to justify him.

"I don't want to train with you anymore, Neji!" said Tenten as she stomped all the way over to him and went to smack him. That, of course, wasn't going to fly with Neji so he grabbed her arm and flipped her over his shoulder so she landed on her back.

"Likewise." He said.

"You're such a jerk!" Tenten said.

"Yup." Neji agreed.

From then on, training went about as normal.

Tenten didn't kill Neji.

She tried, but she failed.

"No training tomorrow, students!" said Gai happily. "I'll see you all the day after tomorrow, same place, same time!"

"Yes Gai!" said Lee, saluting his favorite person in the world. Then he turned to Neji who was all too ready to go home. "Let's hang out tomorrow!"

Neji looked at Lee skeptically. "No." he said.

"Well fine." Said Lee. "How about it, Tenten? You want to hang out tomorrow?"

"I already have plans tomorrow." Said Tenten.

"Okay." Said Lee, turning to Gai. "How about you Gai?"

"I'll be there, Lee!" said Gai, putting his thumb up and allowing his teeth to go PING!

Neji about faced, and left.

He went home and went to bed.

Then he did not wake up and get ready.

And did not go to training.

In fact, he was awakened by the doorbell ringing. He was mad that someone was so rudely ringing the doorbell while he was trying to sleep on one of the very few days off Gai ever gave.

He got up and went to the door looking more bedraggled than he should have for someone who was getting up to answer the door.

He opened the door and saw Tenten standing before him, except she was all dressed up with her hair down.

"Hi Neji!" she said, presenting herself in a shameful fashion. "You ready?"

"Ready?" he said.

"We're hanging out today!" she clarified.

"Oh." Said Neji. "And when did you plan on running this by me?"

"Now!" said Tenten.

Neji stared at her for a long time. Tenten was pretty sure she had won Neji over with her good looks.

That's when she got a door slammed in her face.

And she didn't kill him.

She couldn't have even if she WANTED to.

Neji shook his head and muttered something that sounded remarkably like, "Why me?"

Tenten wasn't about to give up there. If Neji wasn't going to allow her to melt his icy heart, then she was going to force it upon him. She knocked on the door vigorously until Neji was annoyed enough to open it up again.

"_What_?" he said.

"Come on, Neji." Said Tenten. "Don't you want your icy heart to be melted?"

"My icy heart?"

"Yes!" said Tenten. "You have an icy heart and I've taken it upon myself to melt it for you!"

"Is that what this is all about?" Neji said.

"Well…" Tenten said shyly. "That and… I love you!"

Neji couldn't have looked MORE displeased with this confession. He slammed the door again and wouldn't have opened it another time if not for the fact that Tenten was being so ANNOYING.

"What was that all about!" Tenten demanded. "I just confessed my love to you! You have to confess it back and kiss me when I least expect it!"

"Tenten, you're thirteen." Neji pointed out. "I'm thirteen. You don't love me."

"Yes I do!" Tenten said. "I've sorted out my feelings and I've realized that even though you have an icy heart, are an incredible bastard, have absolutely NO redeeming qualities and hardly even talk to me or give me the time of day, I just can't see myself going out with any other guy!"

"Well…no." said Neji. "And if you say anything about my supposed icy heart again then _I_ will make sure to kill _you_."

With that, he slammed the door one more time.

Tenten stood there and waited for him to open it up again and jump into her arms and confess his love that he had been keeping secret for years ever since that tender moment they had in the academy. Well, it wasn't exactly a tender moment. Iruka made her sit next to him because she was talking to her friends too much and he looked at her. I mean, he TOTALLY looked at her. And the next day when she went to sit down next to him again, he took the chair away and stacked it on top of his and sat down on the two chairs.

What a tender moment. Such memories.

She should have killed him THEN!

But she didn't.

Neji looked out the window and watched Tenten walk away looking all dejected. If he wasn't such a bastard, he probably would have felt bad, chased after her, enveloped her in his arms and confessed his undying love for her. But the problem was, there was no such love.

And Hyuuga Neji was not the type to lie to someone, especially if it was only to make that other people feel better about themselves.

So Neji went about his day and was Tenten-less.

Eventually, when the time came, he went to bed.

Then he woke up and got ready.

And went to training.

But this time… no one was there when he arrived.

This was awfully curious. Usually everyone was already there when he arrived.

It didn't take long before he heard some commotion a little while away. He walked over to find his team fighting a group of evil ninjas. Well, that could have probably explained their lack of punctuality.

He didn't hesitate for a moment before he jumped in and joined the battle. He was fighting quite well and holding his own against the evil ninjas… they weren't all THAT skilled.

After all the ninjas were smote, the team got together to share some laughs of their toils.

"Phew!" said Gai. "What a workout! How did everyone do?"

"Great!" said Tenten immediately. "Neji, did you see me fight the ninjas?"

"No." Neji answered.

She frowned. "Did you see me get that guy who was about to hit you?"

"No." Neji said.

"Ha!" said Tenten. "You didn't even see the guy!"

"There was no 'guy'." Neji said. "Especially not one that you fended off. After all, I see everything that happens. And, yes, I DID see you fight but I was not impressed with anything that happened. Or DIDN'T happen, for that matter."

Silence.

"Um…" said Lee and Gai as they quietly slipped away.

Neji watched them go, annoyed that they would do such a thing.

Tenten stared Neji down, or at least tried to. Neji wasn't about to be stared down by anyone… let alone TENTEN.

"Neji, I'm tired of all this pain!" Tenten said once she realized that her previous technique was not working. "It's inside of me, but no one can possibly understand… except you, Neji."

"Me?" said Neji with an exasperated sigh as he stood up.

"No!" Tenten said, grabbing his arm but he smacked it aside. She stood up too. "Okay, so maybe I deserved that."

"You think?" said Neji.

"There's no way we can understand the feelings in our hearts." Said Tenten as she reached out her hands to grab Neji's. Neji put his hands behind his back. "So… let's run away together! Let's get married!"

"Um…no…" Neji said, backing away from her.

"Okay." Said Tenten. "So now I've shared my deepest, darkest secrets. You tell me yours!"

"No." said Neji, getting awfully offended.

Tenten gasped. "You have a fiancé, don't you? I knew it! Lee told me!"

"Why would I have a fiancé?" said Neji. "What world are you living in? I'm thirteen, so there is no reason why I would EVER have a fiancé, and there's also no reason why I would EVER run away and marry you, whether I'm thirteen or eighteen or twenty or thirty."

"No more clouds, no more lies!" Tenten said as if Neji had said nothing. "We have to be straight with each other!"

"I am being straight with you." Neji said. "It's getting to the point that I'm bordering between hating you and loathing you."

"Don't try to soften the blow… just tell me honestly." Tenten said.

"I am." Said Neji. "I'm telling you honestly. This is my honest answer; leave me alone. I think of you as nothing more than a teammate. In fact, I don't even think of you as that much. You're more like a nuisance who won't leave me alone and keeps leeching on to me, expecting me to carry you on my shoulders across the finish line so you won't have to do it yourself. You're a poor excuse for a ninja and I can't stand you at all."

"Do you think that…in another time… in another reality…" Tenten said. "Our love could have prevailed?"

"No." said Neji. "Not now, not ever. Not in another reality, not in another time, not in another place."

"This is the one thing I can't stand about you, Neji!" said Tenten as she started to pathetically cry. "You're so ambiguous! That is why I can't stay with you! Goodbye!"

And she ran off.

Neji watched her go and thought: …

Well, he didn't really know what to think.

As for Tenten...well, no one really knows what happened to her. Some say she went into exile, and others say shebecame the creepy local cat lady. Others say shewas killedin a battle with an evil vizier for the rights to govern Toy Land. But most people believed she got over her crush a few days later, and just spent those painful days spying on Neji and trying to think of other ways to melt his heart.

But she didn't kill him.

**A/N: Sorry, but this is the true version of Neji and Tenten's relationship.**


End file.
